There are a variety of services which require physical contact between two or more persons, such as a patient and a practitioner, in order for the desired service to be adequately administered, and a characteristic of many of such services is a difficultly, on the part of the practitioner, in ascertaining comfort data associated with the patient. Practitioners could in many situations provide a more pleasant (or at least a less unpleasant) service experience and a more effective service result if patient comfort data was readily communicable from patient to practitioner. Unfortunately, under many circumstances such data is not readily communicable due to a variety of factors and resultantly patient experiences are frequently less pleasant than the practitioner could potentially make them while still rendering an effective service.
An exemplary service field which suffers from the limitations described above is the field of massage therapy. Massage therapists manipulate both superficial and deeper layers of muscle and connective tissue using a variety of techniques during which if the pressure applied by the practitioner is too great the patient will potentially experience great discomfort. Not only is patient discomfort intrinsically undesirable, patient discomfort may also lead to a physiological patient reaction known as muscle guarding which inhibits the practitioners ability to deliver the intended therapeutic results. Muscle guarding is a protective response in a muscle, typically wherein the muscle remains in a partially contracted state, which can result from either physical pain or fear of movement. When muscle guarding is occurring it becomes nearly impossible for a massage therapist to achieve the common therapeutic goal of soft tissue lengthening because the effected muscles are actually resisting the accessing and lengthening that the practitioner seeks to induce, e.g. by involuntarily contracting. Accordingly, in the event that the level of pressure applied by the practitioner is too great, e.g. great enough to cause discomfort and induce muscle guarding, the resulting patient experience may be both quite unpleasant and ineffective in achieving the desired therapeutic goals. On the opposite end of the spectrum, too little pressure applied by the practitioner may result in little or no soft tissue lengthening and can also be less pleasurable during the therapy session if a greater amount of depth or pressure was desired. Therefore, the optimum level of pressure for a practitioner to apply during a massage will generally be enough pressure to thoroughly lengthen and knead the patient's soft tissues and muscles but not so much to induce the response of muscle guarding or cause unnecessary discomfort. Moreover, the optimum level of pressure to apply varies widely between patients, even anatomically similar patients, and/or between different parts of a single patient's body, or even within different areas of the same muscle.
Despite the benefits which could be achieved from patient comfort data being readily communicable from the patient to the massage practitioner, such data is infrequently communicated to an appropriate degree. Additionally, often by the time the patient says something, they have already been experiencing discomfort for some time. One reason for this lack of communication is that a patient oftentimes lays face down on a massage table with her head supported by a face cradle which muffles the speech of the patient. Therefore, it may be necessary for the patient to raise her head from the cradle to effectively communicate with the massage practitioner and, due to being in a state of deep relaxation, the patient may simply chose not to put forth the effort of raising her head to communicate. There are many additional factors, which may potentially inhibit communication. The patient may fear that it would be rude to “correct” the practitioner or inform them that they are not doing their job properly, the patient may not understand that there is a great need for communication during the setting of massage therapy and that there is a common misconception of “no pain—no gain,” therefore the patient may just grit and bear through any discomfort, and finally, for people who are non-confrontational this interaction may cause some patients to feel socially awkward, the same way someone would feel ill for sending a plate of food back that was not prepared to their liking. Effective massage therapy requires a patient to expose much of their body to an individual whom the patient may not have established a comfortable relationship with. The general social awkwardness perceived by a patient, e.g. due to fully or partially disrobing, or the act of allowing a practitioner whom they have not had the option to build trust with to view and/or touch their body, sometimes hinders the patient's eagerness to communicate regarding their current comfort level or to place any other requests with the practitioner. There exists, therefore, a need for various apparatus and systems and methods for encouraging the communication of patient comfort data from the patient to the massage practitioner in massage therapy settings.
Another exemplary field which suffers from the aforementioned limitations on patient to practitioner communication is the field of dentistry. During a routine teeth cleaning or other oral examination or procedure, the patient frequently experiences a certain level of discomfort resulting from the practitioner's actions. Also, according to some sources an estimated 75% of Americans experience some form of Dentophobia. Although it may not be feasible to eliminate patient discomfort entirely it remains a goal of dental practitioners to limit discomfort as much as possible while still rendering an effective service. For example, it may be necessary to scale underneath the gum line of a patient to remove calculus buildup and it may be impossible to do so without causing any pain whatsoever. However, if the pain should become too extreme or unbearable it is best for the practitioner to be aware of this so that they can take appropriate actions such as administering a localized numbing agent or simply pausing the activity momentarily and then proceeding more delicately. Also, the patient being able to ask for a hard stop in services due to claustrophobia or anxiety, as well as being able to request predetermined parameters such as suction or a rinse during general routine practices, would be beneficial. Due to the nature of dental services, e.g. a patient's mouth is typically open wide and obstructed, it is understandably difficult for a patient to communicate to the practitioner regarding their current level of discomfort. Therefore, there exists an unmet need in dentistry for various apparatus and systems and methods for encouraging the communication of patient comfort data from the patient to the dental practitioner.
Accordingly, this application discloses an apparatus and methods for nonverbally communicating patient comfort data from a patient to a practitioner wherein the practitioner is physically contacting, or otherwise interacting with, the patient as part of the service being rendered. The apparatus and methods may be used by a massage patient to alert a massage practitioner that the level of pressure currently being applied to the patient is either too low and thus ineffectively massaging the patient's soft tissue or is too great and thus is likely to cause or is causing muscle guarding. The apparatus and methods may also be used by a dental patient to alert a dental practitioner that procedure being performed is causing an unsustainable level of discomfort to the patient. In both of these situations, effective communication regarding the patient's level of comfort or discomfort has the potential to increase the effectiveness of the service being rendered and also decreases the likelihood of the patient sustaining an injury due to the service being administered too aggressively. Therefore, the various apparatus and systems and methods for nonverbally communicating patient comfort data solves the long-felt need of empowering a patient to freely and nonverbally communicate information associated with the patient's own level of comfort or discomfort to a practitioner during a service which requires physical contact between the two.